Move, she urged herself. Now!
Diving into the undergrowth on the other side of the massive bear, Jill’s first instinct was to run. It made sense – running was the only thing that made sense – but she knew too much to think she’d actually outrun any of these huge animals.
Two of the wolves dove at the bear, but he simply swiped one of his massive paws in an arc and sent them flying. A noise that sounded vaguely laugh-like came from the bear as he turned to face the third of the newcomer wolves.
The larger of the two he’d just put down rolled over and crawled to his feet. Blood ran from a wound across his shoulders. The creature lifted a paw to his wound. Seconds later, instead of a paw, he was holding his wound with something vaguely resembling a human hand, with long, thin fingers. He stood on two legs, though they were still more wolf than man, and looked directly into Jill’s saucer-wide eyes.
He grunted and turned, hobbling away, hunched over and dragging one foot, into the woods.
She blinked, unable to believe what she’d just seen, but the adrenaline pumping through Jill’s veins overwhelmed her sense of normal. One of the swatted-off wolves wheeled around, leaping onto the bear’s back and drove his teeth into the massive creature’s neck, pulling and wrenching to try and open the wound.
Effortlessly, the bear shrugged him off and followed through with a swipe that sent the wolf scuttling across the ground and crashing into a tree.
The bear looked again in her direction, and she noticed what seemed to be intricate tattoos, or maybe just a light pattern on the fur, around his eyes and his ears, like spider webs of different colors.
For a long moment, she felt like he was in her heart, talking to her soul. A sense of warmth filled her from within, a completely ridiculous sense of security came next. She let the long-held breath leak out of her lips. “What are you?” she asked in a breathy trickle of sound. “You’re not a bear. Are you?”
The huge creature shook his mighty head, snorted, and turned away just in time to catch a rake of wolf claws on the side of his face. He returned a roar so savage and wild that the entirety of Jill’s body wriggled with a sort of pleasure she wanted to deny, but couldn’t.
The wolves, three of them still willing to fight, stood still for a moment, exchanged a glance, and charged at once.
A huge paw shot out, catching one on the side of the face and wrenching his head in a sickening way. That wolf fell, motionless, as the other two leapt. One went high and the other low. Teeth sank into the hide on the bear’s neck, and the other bit hard on the underside of his head.
He writhed, trying to loosen the jaws, but this time he couldn’t free himself before blood came. Just a small amount ran to the ground, but seeing this creature who gave her such peace injured sent a shock through Jill.
Pepper spray, she remembered, wrenching her arm free from her pack and grabbing the red and black can from the front pocket. What the hell am I doing? There was no time for doubt. She charged as she shook, and then unleashed a stream into the face of the wolf on top of the bear.
It howled in pain, and loosened enough for the bear to shake him off. The bear blinked a few times, but didn’t seem particularly bothered by the little bit of spray that dusted his eyes.
The wolf turned to come back, and she brandished the can again, snarling at the beast. He wrinkled his face, baring those massive, yellow fangs, then snapped the air. Jill took another shot. The stream hit the ground right underneath the wolf’s face, splashing up into his mouth and his eyes.
He screeched that time, reeling from the so-strong-it-was-probably-illegal spray. He tried to lunge again, but his jerky, halting movement made him stumble once, and then again.
Desperation gripped the last of the wolves.
He let go, then bit again, teeth sinking into the bear’s jaw. Standing up on his hind legs, the bear dragged the wolf off the ground, slammed down and ripped the bite free. He landed with a huge thud, roaring viciously, and sent the wolf skittering off to the forest with the others.
There it is again, the mark is burning. She touched her chest, and the bear cocked his head, a sound partway between a non-threatening roar and a snort escaping his snout. His eyes went left, and then right, as though he was scanning for more danger.
“Did you just... protect me?”
He snuffled again, and moved his head closer to her.
On all fours, the bear stood about shoulder to shoulder with Jill, his head extending above hers. With a trembling hand, she did what she knew she should never do – she stuck it out toward what must be a ton or more of bear. She’d never seen one so large, hell, she wasn’t sure anyone had.
But it just walked straight into her, head lowered right into the middle of Jill’s chest. He nuzzled her, snuffling at her chest as she stroked his huge, golden ears. The two of them watched one another, studying each other’s face, for what felt like eternity.
“Ursus arctos appalachia?” she asked the massive bear. “Finding you was a lot easier than I thought it’d be.” Jill laughed under her breath. The bear seemed to cock an eyebrow at her, but of course that was impossible.
Right? Bears don’t cock eyebrows.
Then again, bears don’t have facial tattoos and usually don’t exhibit two different colored eyes. Or something that approaches kissing.
Then he seemed to pull his lips back into an expression resembling a smile, but that was impossible too. Completely, totally impossible.
And then he stood on his hind legs, towering over her, almost double her height.
In that split second, her life flashed before her eyes. Something she did had set the beast off, she’d made some gesture that aroused some territorial anger in the bear and he was about to...
“Shrink?”
Right before her eyes, the bear’s arms and legs shortened, but not terribly much. The fur on his arms and legs and belly slowly receded, shrinking back into his pores. Hard, long, muscles appeared next, and his eyes – oh God his eyes – one of them amber, the other blue flecked with gold.
Jill felt her consciousness waiver slightly, and she reached out for him. He caught her arm.
“I found you,” he said.
Shocked, Jill’s hands slid off his shoulder and his forearm and brushed against his...
“Sorry,” she said with a gulp.
“For what?” his voice boomed.
“I touched your, uh,” she fell silent, swallowing hard again. “You know.”
“What’s there to be sorry for? You’re the mate I was hunting. I’ve found you, everything’s right.”
She nodded, slowly, taking it all in. “I’m your,” she switched to shaking her head from side to side.
“Mate,” he repeated. The man’s voice is basically what she always figured a bear would sound like if he could speak English. “I’m using the right word, aren’t I?”
She looked down at her feet, and caught a glimpse of what she accidently brushed earlier. It was fitting, to say the least. Then, looking back up into his face, she had to think for a second before she could summon the right words. “You... turned into a bear?” she asked. “Holy shit. I mean, Bigfoot, yeah, everyone knows that’s a load of crap but werebears? That’s...”
“Rogue,” he said. “I’m one of the two clan alphas for this area. You’re,” he paused, half a grin crossing his beautiful face. “Not one of us?”
“I don’t think so.”
“But you have the mark.”
He touched the birthmark on Jill’s chest that started tingling again, like before. “I’ve been dreaming, uh, I think. About you. And...”
The bear – Rogue – grabbed Jill’s hand and put it to his chest. “This is mine,” he whispered.
Even whispering, his voice was just big, like the rest of him. Jill’s insides wiggled a little, shaking slightly as she curled her fingertips along the shape. Without even looking at it, she knew it was the same as hers.
“How?” she asked. “Is this... how?”
He chuckled softly. “This is new.”
“Okay,” Jill said, collecting herself a little, and doing the thing where she gets some emotional distance and thinks in objective scientific terms. “So, you’re a man who can turn into Ursus arctos appalachia?”
Rogue grunted a laugh. “Is that what you call us? Shapeshifters? Then those wolves were Ursus arctos appalachia too.” He looked very pleased with himself for using the phrase.
Jill looked, to his eyes, paler than she had a few moments before. Her knees were weak, he felt her tremble, and then she fell against his naked body. He held her, out of surprise more than anything, but once she was against him, her heat crept into him, and Rogue clutched her tighter against his muscled chest.
“That’s not...”
She looked up at him, blinked twice, and then went limp.
“Well,” he said to himself, “I guess this just got a lot more complicated.”
-5-
“At some point, I’m going to stop saying ‘this can’t be real.’”
-Jill
“Holy shit!” Jill swore and pushed herself backward against the wall of her field cabin, gripping the sheets in her fists and looking around the room like a terrified cat who suspected a trap.
The entire room was empty, the door was locked, and there wasn’t a trace of anything out of the ordinary. Had she somehow gotten here earlier in the day than she thought, and then just dreamed that entire ridiculous hoodoo about the werebears and the werewolves and the fight and... Uh, mating with the bear?